Valve seat support

ABSTRACT

A valve seat support for a solenoid valve consists of a sleeve-shaped support housing for accommodating a valve seat body, which is produced from a plastic and which has the contour of a hollow cylinder. The support housing has, on the periphery thereof, a plurality of small-surface recesses, which are directly radially inward and which are surrounded by the plastic of the valve seat body on all sides in order to establish an interlocking connection between the support housing and the valve seat body.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of PCT International application No.PCT/EP2015/079338, filed Dec. 12, 2015, which claims priority to Germanpatent application No. 10 2015 200 072.9, filed Jan. 1, 2015, each ofwhich is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention concerns a valve seat support, in particular for asolenoid valve.

BACKGROUND

EP 1 737 715 B1 has already disclosed a valve seat support fixed to asolenoid valve and comprising a sleeve-shaped support housing containinga valve seat body which is made of a plastic and has the contour of ahollow cylinder. To fix the valve seat body to the support housing, thelower sleeve portion is angled radially inward into a flange which isembedded in the plastic of the valve seat body on both sides.

The proposed fixing of the valve seat body to the support housinghowever requires additional material to produce the angled flange, andhas not proved particularly advantageous in relation to the embedding ofthe flange in the plastic of the valve seat body on both sides.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose ofgenerally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of thepresently named inventors, to the extent it is described in thisbackground section, as well as aspects of the description that may nototherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neitherexpressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the presentdisclosure.

SUMMARY

Therefore, a low-cost and compact valve seat support of the typedescribed, as simple as possible and suitable for function, in which thevalve seat body is securely fixed to the support housing with minimumcomplexity.

A valve seat support for a solenoid valve consists of a sleeve-shapedsupport housing for accommodating a valve seat body, which is producedfrom a plastic and which has the contour of a hollow cylinder. Thesupport housing has, on the periphery thereof, a plurality ofsmall-surface recesses, which are directly radially inward and which aresurrounded by the plastic of the valve seat body on all sides in orderto establish an interlocking connection between the support housing andthe valve seat body.

Other objects, features and characteristics of the present invention, aswell as the methods of operation and the functions of the relatedelements of the structure, the combination of parts and economics ofmanufacture will become more apparent upon consideration of thefollowing detailed description and appended claims with reference to theaccompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification.It should be understood that the detailed description and specificexamples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the disclosure,are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended tolimit the scope of the disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure will become more fully understood from thedetailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective longitudinal sectional view of a suitableembodiment of the valve seat support;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a chamfered end portion which, on theoutside, is provided with three trough-shaped depressions evenlydistributed over the periphery of the valve seat support and protrudinginto the valve seat support as small-surface radial protrusions; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the valve seat support oriented in theopposite direction to FIG. 2, such that a flange-like collar curvingradially towards the outside is clearly evident.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows in a considerable enlargement the valve seat supportaccording to the invention, consisting of a sleeve-like support housing1 containing a valve seat body 3 which is made from a plastic and hasthe contour of a hollow cylinder.

FIG. 1 furthermore shows that, on its end region facing away from thevalve seat 4, the valve seat body 3 has a cylindrical extension 7protruding from the support housing 1, over which an elastic sealingring 13 is pushed onto the cylindrical extension 7 as far as a shoulder14. The sealing ring 13 ensures that, after mounting of the valve seatsupport in a valve housing (not shown), no gaseous or liquid pressurizedmedium can escape along the outer contour of the valve seat support intothe valve housing.

In order to achieve a secure fixing of the valve seat body 3 in thesupport housing 1 with minimum complexity, as FIGS. 2 and 3 show, on itsperiphery the support housing 1 has several small-surface depressions 2directed radially inward and protruding inwardly on the support housing1 as radial protrusions 11, which create an interlocking connectionbetween the support housing 1 on the valve seat body 3 and which aresurrounded by the plastic of the valve seat body 3 on all sides in theend state of the valve seat support as shown on FIG. 1.

As FIGS. 2 and 3 show, a plurality in this case at least threetrough-shaped depressions 2 are provided on the support housing 1,evenly distributed over the periphery of the support housing 1.According to the depiction in FIG. 1, the depressions 2 are filledcompletely with the plastic of the valve seat body 3 so that, after theproduction of the valve seat support, the plastic terminates flush withthe outer casing of the support housing 1.

For simplicity and for an interlocking fixing of the valve seat body 3to the support housing 1, FIG. 2 illustrates in a top view thearrangement of the depressions 2 with the resulting protrusions 11 madedirectly on an end portion 5 of the support housing 1 which is providedwith a hopper-shaped chamfer 6 interrupted by the depressions 2. Thechamfer 6 and the depressions 2 are preferably produced in one workingprocess by plastic deformation of the support housing 1 consisting of athin plate.

Because of the use of thin plate, the sleeve contour of the supporthousing 1 shown in all figures is produced by a deep-drawing process inwhich the depressions 2, in order to form the protrusions 11 inside thesupport housing 1, are formed by means of an embossing die applied fromthe outside. Preferably, the depressions 2 are here formed in the shapeof troughs, dishes or cups. Also, the casing of the support housing 1comprises several passage openings 12, also produced by embossing orpunching, for the passage of pressurized medium, at a distance from thedepressions 2.

FIG. 3 shows in a perspective view the valve seat support in theopposite direction to FIG. 2, so that it shows a top view of theflange-like collar which curves radially towards the outside and is alsoproduced in the deep-drawing process, and which is arranged at thesleeve end 9 opposite the chamfer 6. The collar 10 serves for compactfixing of the valve seat support in a valve housing (not shown) of asolenoid valve, the valve closing member of which either closes or opensthe valve seat 4 of the valve seat body 3 depending on theelectromagnetic excitation.

For production and interlocking fixing of the valve seat body 3 in thesupport housing 1, the initially liquid plastic is supplied to thesupport housing 1 via the hopper-shaped chamfer 6 provided on thesleeve-shaped support housing 1, for which the plastic is supplied bymeans of a plastic injection nozzle which may be immersible in thesupport housing 1.

The hollow cylindrical contour is formed and the valve seat body 3 isfixed both on the outside at the depressions 2 and on the inside at theprotrusions 11 at the same time in one working process byinjection-molding of the plastic in the region of the protrusions 11 andthe depressions 2.

This allows economic production, suitable for automation, of the valveseat support, with the result of an absolutely safe and inseparableinterlocking connection of the valve seat body 3 to the support housing1 with simultaneous production of the valve seat body 3.

The foregoing preferred embodiments have been shown and described forthe purposes of illustrating the structural and functional principles ofthe present invention, as well as illustrating the methods of employingthe preferred embodiments and are subject to change without departingfrom such principles. Therefore, this invention includes allmodifications encompassed within the scope of the following claims.

1. A valve seat support for a solenoid valve comprising: a valve seatbody made of a plastic and having the contour of a hollow cylinder; asleeve-shaped support housing for receiving the valve seat body; aplurality of small-surface depressions defined on the periphery of thesupport housing and directed radially inward; a plurality of radialprotrusions protruding inwardly on the support housing; an interlockingconnection between the depressions and the radial protrusions to connectthe support housing and the valve seat body; and wherein theinterlocking connection are surrounded by the plastic of the valve seatbody.
 2. The valve seat support of claim 1, wherein the depressions arefilled completely with the plastic of the valve seat body and terminateflush with the outer casing of the support housing.
 3. The valve seatsupport of claim 1, wherein the depressions are distributed evenly overthe periphery of the support housing.
 4. The valve seat support of claim1, wherein the depressions are formed in the shape of one of: troughs,dishes and cups.
 5. The valve seat support of claim 4, wherein thesupport housing is formed by deep-drawing of thin plate in which thedepressions are embossed by an embossing die applied from the outside.6. The valve seat support of claim 1, wherein the depressions aredefined an end portion which is formed on the support housing and havinga hopper-shaped chamfer interrupted by the depressions.
 7. The valveseat support of claim 6, wherein the hopper-shaped chamfered end portionand the depressions are formed by plastic deformation of the supporthousing.
 8. The valve seat support of claim 6, wherein the supporthousing has a collar arranged on a sleeve end opposite the chamfer forfixing in the valve housing.
 9. The valve seat support of claim 6,wherein plastic is supplied into and around the end portion via thehopper-shaped chamfer on the support housing to form the contour of thevalve seat body.
 10. The valve seat support of claim 6, wherein plasticis supplied into and around the end portion through a variablyorientable plastic injection nozzle to form the valve seat body.
 11. Thevalve seat support of claim 1, wherein the interlocking fixing of thevalve seat body at the radial protrusions and depressions is achieved inone working process with the hollow cylindrical formation of the valveseat body.
 12. The valve seat support of claim 11, wherein theinterlocking fixing of the valve seat body is achieved by plasticinjection molding.